VietNamNet Bridge – The biggest blunder Vietnam has made in university education programming is that it tried to produce as many university students as possible. As a result, tens of thousands of graduates have found themselves unemployed.
Miscalculation leads to unreasonable education programming
According to Dr. Nguyen Minh Thuyet, an expert in education and social issues, there are three factors for Vietnam to consider to decide how big the university system should be: workforce demand, current economic conditions and the schools’ training capabilities.
Thuyet, in 2004, as Deputy Chair of the National Assembly’s Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Children, warned that it would be a big waste if Vietnam spent too much of its resources on university education.
At that time, Thuyet predicted that Vietnam would need 13,000-15,000 bachelors every year to provide to different business fields of the national economy. Instead, Vietnam produced 200,000 bachelors every year in early 2000s, while the figure has now jumped to 400,000.
“The biggest blunder Vietnam made in programming the university system was that it valued quantity above quality. My warnings about the bachelor oversupply, regrettably, went unheeded,” Thuyet said.
The years from 2004 to 2010 were a time when Vietnam witnessed the strongest development of the university system, with one new school set up every two weeks.
Establishing more universities was a part of the national program on developing university education, under which Vietnam strived to have 400 university students per 10,000 people.
The Ministry of Education and Training then set up the target after referring to the information that 400-450 out of every 10,000 people in other countries attend universities.
The targeted proportion of 400 university students per 10,000 was later confirmed in the Vietnam Labor Force Development Strategy approved by the government.
Two years later, the government released Decision No. 37 on adjusting university and junior college development networks in 2006-2020. However, the decision said Vietnam would strive to have 256 students per 10,000 people by 2020, not 400 as initially expected. This means that the target has been cut down by 46 percent.
Analysts then commented that there was no foundation for Vietnam to define how many bachelors it needs to produce, while no one can say for sure whether 400 or 256 is the reasonable goal.
Government’s decision ignored
A decision by the Prime Minister’s office, released in June 2013, announced that Vietnam would have 460 universities and junior colleges by 2020. As compared with the 2007 school development program, this was a lowering, by 100, of the targeted number of schools.
Despite this, the Prime Minister’s decision has not been respected. Thanh Nien has quoted its sources as saying that as of March 2014, Vietnam already has 471 universities and junior colleges. These include the 133 schools established in 2007-2013.
Most recently, the Ministry of Education and Training has requested government approval on its plan to set up Khanh Hoa University, on the basis of the existing Nha Trang Pedagogical Junior College and the Nha Trang Culture, Arts and Tourism Junior College.
Mai Chi